To Stay Dead
by fryan
Summary: With his country gone and most of the world infected one man focuses on a few goals. Finding his family and surviving at all costs.
1. Chapter 1 - 5

To Stay Dead

Prologue

The cold frozen earth crunches under my boots as I cross the abandoned landscape of my upbringing. Flat fields full of dead crops lay flat. Harvest didn't happen this year for reasons ever survivor knows about. As I cross the road I can hear my pursuer mumble his lunacy.

It can't be hard to track me. Red drops trail the lightly snow crusted ground now. The wound doesn't run deep, but it does set wide on my arm. Across the eagle that bares our old nations flag. To stop and dress the wound would obviously be certain death as the gap between me and my hunter grows smaller.

I clear the field and enter a patch of woods I remember dearly. I played here as a child with old friends. Some living and some not. I hump it past the largest oak and down into the overhang it creates next to the creak. I pull out my wallet and fumble for my ID. William Perry it reads. I slid it into my thermal sock on my right foot. I have seen what this man has done to his victims, to people I love. If anyone ever finds my body I want them to be able to identify me and possibly get me back to what family I have left. More importantly I want them to realize who I was. I was a man born of this land. Taught to love my family, neighbors, and believe in God, maybe not love him as how could anyone love him after what he has done. More importantly I was taught to live this land, hunt the wildlife, forage, and survive. I am a survivor. I ready myself. I pull the one bullet I always save for myself out of my pocket and load it straight into the chamber of my Hi-Point and I pull out the hunting knife given to my father from his father and solely in my possession through circumstances that only drive my anger and thirst to survive. I will not die here without a fight, but I can't help but think back to when this all began, the months ago when I had a promising future and an easy life. As I think back to how it all started I hear him.

"Please stop the screaming."

Part 1: Man I Love College

Chapter 1

It all started for me 5 months ago on September 25th. It was a notoriously dry and hot summer that year and it was trying its hardest to carry on for as long as possible. While the farmers struggled I had few worries. I was getting ready to finish my final year attending school at Rock Bluff College in Ohio. I had plans to be a teacher. My real worries at the time were finishing my classes, getting a student teaching placement, and possibly cutting of those final pesky 10 to 20 pounds in order to get a hot date to make the bitter ex real jealous.

The last part wasn't a real worry. I had been told my past squeezes that I was fairly attractive. Short blonde crew cut, fairly muscular build, and taller than most at just over 6'0 tall. I had also been told by my ex that I had blue eyes a girl could get lost in for days when I wanted to make my woman happy, but also eyes that could cut into her soul if I was in a fowl mood. I think I get the former from my mother and later from my father. A enticing combination of sweet and sour.

No it wasn't my looks that lost me my woman, it was my general goals in life, or lack there of to be more exact. I wanted to teach, I wanted to live in my old small town of General Crossing, and I wanted to live a simple life. Well good luck finding a college girl who wants too many of those things in life. I tend to find that most want to live in the cities and travel the world. The damn good few like me that I have found in my 3 years at school always talked about living in their specific corners of the country. Well honey tough luck. It doesn't help that I couldn't honestly say that I loved any of the girls I have been with, but I would also be lying if I said I didn't hold a grudge if I wasn't the one handing out the pink slip.

I don't like the unexpected. That to me is an oddity because there is no way in the world I could have predicted what was going to happen. Every year some new strain of something or another comes out and scares the general public crazy. The media gets a hold of it and throws gas on the fire. I never gave any of that hype news much thought and honestly this time around with news not knowing what to make of what was happening and everyone focusing on that weeks super bogus cold 2012 they didn't pay attention. It literally went from aggravated homeless people in Toledo, extra gang violence, and full on 99% riots before the media actually reported what was really happening. The dead were walking.

Containment. That was what the stations were saying was happening. I could hear bomber jets flying over my second floor apartment every 10 minutes from Wright Patterson down in Dayton, so I felt comfortable in what the news was feeding me. So did everyone. We were only 20 miles away from a full on walking dead outbreak but we all walked around like there was no chance for us to get hit.

What we now know is that it only takes one. Some poor bastard sneaking his family out of the city with an infected person. They turn and bite someone, who bites someone, so on and so forth. The defensive line eventually gets hit from the rear and the flanks by escaped dead and the next thing you know you have 10,000 strong shambling down I-75 straight for us, just as the sun goes down, just as people are getting settled in their homes for the night, and just as most people are getting ready for bed. Full on massacre.

Chapter 2

To say that morning was nerve racking holds both truth and falsehood. The best way I can describe it is this. It was like a day at work where your quota was doubled but you were given a half day for a holiday.

I woke up and hit the snooze like usual. I took care of something that was at attention as usual and I walked into the small living room/kitchen area and poured a bowl of cereal as usual. It wasn't until I turned on the news that I understood the gravity of what was happening. Quarantine had broken, the highway was a long undead snake and the head of it was already at the towns corporation limits. The exit to the Interstate was packed with folks who had gotten the news last night and it was already over ran with ghouls. The two way state road on the other side of town was packed solid and hadn't moved more than 100 feet in the past hour.

I quickly checked my stores of food and realized that I had to go and get what I could. I was running out of the apartment in boxers, slippers, and a hoodie to the carry out a block away from my house. I wasn't thinking. Something that every survivor should do is think first. I was acting on pure instinct. They were coming, I needed to hold up in my place to survive, to do that I needed food, stop thinking and get food. I hadn't analyzed the situation. I was trying to be the action star but instead I was the funny guy who usually dies first in a slasher film.

The carry out had been about picked bare. I grabbed the last basket and filled it with what I could of canned goods, jerky, and protein bars. I didn't notice the bodies on the ground, or even the blood I slid in. I was almost to the door when I heard the hammer pull back on a pistol. I turned to see Terry the Indian clerk. I knew him well enough since I was in his story at least every other day to buy a pack of cigarettes or a 6 pack of beers. I talked to him all the time and joked with him fairly often unlike some of the other stuck up prissy pricks that populate this city.

I put my arms up with the basket in my hand.

"Damn Terry, you know me. If it's about money you can have my card and charge me what ever you want."

He looked at me and a glaze seemed to come out of his eyes. I saw a fleck of recognition in his face. "My store is ruined and those things are only minutes away from here. Your money isn't going to help me. I've lost everything regardless of what happens now."

I saw a tear roll down his face as he slowly pulled the gun up under his chin. Without even seeing my first walker yet I had seen my first death. A man that I had been sharing raunchy jokes with just a day earlier had blown his brains out of the back of his head. I couldn't even tell that I pissed myself. All I could think about was what I had done to be thrown into this hell.

Chapter 3

How did I not die that day? I stood frozen while a full on panic riot rocked the city around me. Why hadn't anyone come into the store while I stared blankly? They could have easily taken the basket right out of my hand without me even noticing. A ghoul, as Terry had called them, could have walked in and taken a bite right out of my neck. The first random of them were already on my street, but I stood there untouched by the living or the dead for those 5 minutes frozen in fear of what I had seen and the future I knew I would be forced to live through.

I shook myself out of my stupor and for the first time I focused. Focusing and analyzing situations is something I attribute my current survival to, but those first few weeks it was something I had trouble doing. Everything seems to slow and the world moves by at a snails pace. I notice the bodies on the ground with bullets to their chest. Obviously looters that Terry had tried to stop at the beginning, before his store was destroyed and stripped nearly bear. I see the large blood pool from one I had clearly skidded through. I can feel every small pebble and piece of broken glass that had worked their way between my slipper and my foot and then into my skin. Pieces of Terry's brain and skull are plastered to the wall behind him, glued there by his blood.

I walked behind the counter to see. Terry looked mostly normal laying on his back. I assume most of the back of his skull was missing but I couldn't and didn't want to see. I reached down and pulled his .38 special from his stiff hand and looked it over. Nickel plated, black stock, 6 round cylinder. A nice piece. I stuffed it in with my food stuff alone with the half box of shells I found behind the counter. To top it off I grabbed 2 cartons of Reds and dumped what lighters I could in as well.

Things started to speed back up for me as I walked out the store. Smoke was already billowing up from campus and the small air port. People ran everywhere and drove recklessly. People with a goal in mind but no plan to accomplish it. I booked it as fast as I could back to my apartment, limping on the foot filled with glass, slipper full of blood. I hear a scream and a moan about 50 feet to my left, but I keep moving.

In the small parking lot behind my place was my car. I popped the trunk and pulled out the crow bar I leave back there and head up my stairs. I literally throw everything I have but the crow bar into the apartment and head back down the wooden stairs that lead up to my place. Just a simple shitty two story house, one apartment down stairs and one on top only accessible by the outside stair case.

I started pulling off the steps one by one all the way to the first landing. After about 10 minutes of work there was a 5x5 base and then a 7 foot drop off. Just enough to keep those things from getting up. By this time I was tired. 1 hour into my day and I was ready to sleep. I stumbled back up my remaining steps and sat in my fold out chair. I was asleep within seconds.

Chapter 4

I woke back up sometime around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I had been asleep for close to 8 hours. By now the sky was dark with smoke and the setting sun made it look like I had just walked into Mordor. I looked down at my feet and could see that my whole right slipper was dark red. The smell of blood and something else filled my nostrils. I had forgotten that I pissed myself. I stepped inside and stripped down while I walked to the bathroom. I started the shower and warmed the water while I sat on the toilet with a pair of tweezers. All in all 7 pieces of glass were in my foot. Most only the size of a pebble but all were deep under the skin. After digging all the pieces out, and helping the pain with some swigs of Turkey, I stepped into the shower to clean off. I stood until the water running into the drain wasn't pink and I dried off.

After dressing I got out some beef and started frying it on the stove top. Figured I might as well start on the stuff that will go bad if the power goes out. Produce and meat first, then bread stuff. I had about 2 pounds of ground beef and steaks and 3 pounds of chicken to go through. I could drag that out as long as the power was on. In the cabinets I had enough stuff that I figured I could make it by myself in the apartment for 1 ½ months, 2 at the most.

Before my steak was done I filled the tub up as far as I could and started filling every sealable container that I could find. I knew that after the power went the water pressure would slowly start to die across town. Food didn't mean a thing without water to live on. If that meant that I just took my last shower for a while so be it.

I took my steak out on the porch with what was left of a bag of potato chips and a beer. I would end up losing those 10 - 20 pounds over the next few weeks regardless of what my diet was like so who cares. After my meal I sipped at my Turkey and lit a cigarette while I watched.

I could see my drug dealing neighbors had bolted and the Frat houses around me, including those fratties down stairs, had most likely tried to bolt as well. Doors were all wide open, windows were not knocked in, and cars were all gone. I held no belief that any of them were still alive. If they left on wheels they were stuck and by that point in the day they had to be dead. Even though they were gone I did see the random person every now and then running, but all were far off. Honestly I was happy they were. If I was lucky I could hold out long enough with what I have and maybe make it out. Add another person to this scenario and I might have to jump down from this tree house fort I call my college home and go looking for food.

During this time I constantly tried to call my parents. There was no signal and I could only assume the local tower had gone down. I got my laptop and I tried sending them an email, but something was weird with the internet. My computer was connected, and I could get on certain sites, such as government, news, heck even some sports sites, but all the social networking, email, and video sites had been shut down. After several tries I closed it and sat back. I couldn't tell my family that I was alright, regardless how much I wanted to tell them. Thinking about how much I didn't talk to them while at school at that point made me feel like shit. The kind of depressed feeling when you know the girl left because of something you did that was legitimately stupid. Even though that rarely happened to me, I know what to do when it did.

After about a quarter of a bottle and 4 smokes I was feeling all right. Tipped the see saw of depression back to equal levels. With the day I had though the drink made me tired quicker than usual. I had decided to get up and hit the hay early when I heard stumbling. It was coming from behind the building and walking up from under my stair case. The girl walked right through where I had cut down the stairs only hours before and kept on going. As I moved to step into my place she twitched. Slowly she began to turn and look up. As our eyes met I had one thought. Lets keep from pissing yourself twice in one day.

Chapter 5

She couldn't have been older than 10. Shoulder length dark hair with pick pajamas and a bathrobe while where tennis shoes. She was covered in blood and was missing her left arm. Her eyes were almost completely white similar to a blind person. Judging by her appearance and the shoes she was wearing I was certain that her parents had pulled her out of bed, put her in her shoes, and drove off trying to get away in the middle of the night. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what killed her. Stupidity.

At the time I stood in shock for the second time of the day. I watched this thing move closer and reach up, trying to grab the edge of wooden landing, missing it by at least 2 feet. I sat on a step and smoked another red. I had no idea what to do. Go in and ignore her or deal with it. At the time I had no idea what drew these creatures. The media had yet to report anything other than they were flesh eaters. I went in and looked at the .38 special laying on the table. I thought differently and I went into my room to get my Hi-Point out from under my bed. It was a simple 9mm, steel finish, only one 7 round clip. I bought it for home defense when the crime in town started getting worse. Now I was glad to have it.

I walked out and flipped off the safety and pulled back the slide. The first round popped into place. I looked down over the edge and I pulled the trigger. One round went into her shoulder, knocking her on her ass. She slowly got back up however and started reaching for me with the same determination. This time I got on my knees to get a closer shot. I put the second through her head. This time she fell to the ground, motionless. He dead white eyes stared up at me.

Once against I hadn't thought things through. It's understandable not knowing what draws them. Things hit the news only a few days earlier and no one knew, but to not know that it would take a head shot. That was another piece of information that had yet to be shared with the public, but I should have know by looking at her, at them. Her whole arm was missing and she had walk all the way from the edge of town. She had obviously bleed out hours earlier meaning that if she was still up and walking with no blood then obviously shooting any of her organs the require blood would be worthless. I should have focused on the situation. Thought about it. It was a skill I would learn to use over the coming weeks.

I stood back up and started walking back up to my door. I remember a strange silence. Throughout the day I could hear running, screaming, and other panicked noises. Now I just heard silence and the wind. The thing though is that I remember seeing a near by tree when I walked into my place for the night. The leaves were not moving. I would soon learn that was not wind I heard and making noise is one of the quickest ways to die. I would soon learn that the wind was the collective moan of what would soon become a common site.

That night I slept off and on watching the news on my tv. Rock Bluff was gone and walkers from all of North West Ohio were spreading out in every direction. They were reporting that reservists had been called up and a defensive quarantine line had been drawn up around about fifth of Ohio, and parts of Southern Michigan and North Eastern Indiana. Early reports were saying that the lines were holding strong against the first waves that have hit the lines. I was too tired to think about it at the time but looking back I am certain. The news anchors seemed nervous. They were constantly clearly their throats and peaking off camera. They were not sharing information for reasons I wouldn't find out about for a few weeks yet. At the time though I couldn't see it. I was tired and scared. I finally fell into a deep sleep with the thought that at least my family was safe.

In the moaning I woke to a ray of sun light hitting my in my eyes. The news was still reporting the same thing. After a few seconds I opened my ears more and started to hear several strange moaning sounds. I looked out my window and I noticed that the whole area was dotted with the monsters with a good majority stumbling around the house. None were trying to beat down any doors, but I could tell several were in the house down stairs. It seemed that they migrated from else where in the city once they ran out of food on the highway. Something must have some how drawn them here.

I didn't take anymore chances at that point. I took out hefty bags and covered all the windows so that no light could get out, I turn the tv on the lowest brightness setting and muted it while turning on the closed captioning. It wasn't hard to figure that they used some if not all of their senses and my shots yesterday probably didn't help. While I wasn't the only one popping off rounds inside the city, they were few and fair between. Anyone popping off a round would soon have a group of these things beating at their doors. If I stayed quite and out of site, I was certain that they would soon walk off.

On top of that it wasn't like I had an armory full of ammo anyway. Two pistols, close to 30 rounds for each. If I magically got a kill with each shot, there would still be hundreds to deal with. It was time to try and be smart, and at that time it meant that I had to keep quite.


	2. Chapter 6 - 8

Chapter 6

In this horror every survivor by this point in time has met someone who mentally cracked. Lost their marbles as some would say. If they were lucky you would only come across some silent mumbler or tin capped alien worshipper who had somehow managed to survive to the point where they ran across someone. If you were unlucky enough you could run across a dangerous nut. Someone who had acquired a mental illness that drove them to a dangerous level of madness.

In this new dead world there are many different things that can drive even the strongest willed and smartest minds to madness. Seeing family members die, children ripped apart, and lives that people worked on for so many years vanish in an instant. There are also the consistent moans of the dead that can over time make a person's mental record start to skip. To me the one thing that I think drove most crazy is loneliness. Lack of human contact and socialization.

As someone who studied Education, I had a decent background in psychology. One thing that we learned in college was Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. What this basically comes down to is that every single person in the world has 5 tiers of needs and higher needs cannot be met unless the lower needs are met first. At the base of the pyramid we have Psychological which includes the basic necessities to keep a person alive, breathing, food, water, and sleep. After that we have Safety which is fairly straight forward. In the third tier we have Love/Belonging. This is where we get into the whole human interaction factor.

In this mess people were struggling to meet their Psychological and Safety needs. These needs themselves are so important the if a person was not meeting them, they would not actually have the time to go crazy. Their constant thoughts would be on meeting these needs. A lot of point A to B plans that either worked or got them killed. The major tier that cost people their minds was Love/Belonging. They had all the basic necessities to survive and had some sort of physical safety. Problem was that a lot of people only gained those first two tiers because they either went about it alone or lost everyone they were with along the way. This meant long periods of time being unable to meet what is considered a fundamental need but one you can physically live without. Constant loneliness left people to their thoughts, especially those without power, and caused people to over think and eventually start to believe they are the only person left alive. This tends to be called LMS Syndrome, or Last Man Standing. These types of people refuse to believe that there arn't any other people left and when they do encounter other people they either think they are intelligent zombies, aliens, or if you lucky just some harmless ghost.

I have no doubt that if things had kept going the way they were, I would have ended up as a LMS or worse. Dead. From the day I decided to go anti sensory a lingering feeling of loneliness started to sink in. The whole first day I laid on my coach with my second to last bottle of Turkey, a pack of Reds, and I watched/read the news. By this point nothing new was being reported. Just the same old story of the quarantine line holding, troops being moved in, and the rest of the country should continue life as normal.

With the total silence I could hear the dead outside start to thin more and more throughout the day. At least three times I could hear screams off in the distance. People who tried to make a run for it or who didn't barricade their particular choice of safety well enough. That first day was hard. I reached out to those people in my mind. I felt for them really. I knew that I hadn't prepared myself any better and hell I surely didn't get an early jump on anyone. I was lucky enough to wake up just in time, be close to a source where I can add a slight surplus to my food, and live in a place I could easily alter to protect myself. Because of those few factors I got to live and others got to die.

With the quite, pitch black living room, and light glow from the television I began to lose all sense of time even on the first day. I fell asleep extremely early and dreamt uneasily. Gnashing black teeth, boney fingers with peeled back nails, the cries of my sisters screaming for help. I woke several times that night, head springing up too fast for my drunk brain to follow. At one point I tried to smoke a cigarette to calm my nerves to only fall asleep and drop it on my face. I woke with a yelp seeing a spray or bright orange as I swatted the burning end away from my face.

I walked into the bathroom and risked turning on the light for a few seconds. I had a blister already forming on my right cheek under my eye and a stream of red from where I slapped at the cigarette and wiped it from my face. Pissed off I used a needle to drain the blister and I went back out into my living room after turning off the bathroom light. I picked up the bottle of Turkey and I drained the last 5th of the bottle. I knew that when I am wasted I tend to dream next to nothing. After my burning turned to a gentle warm feeling I grabbed my blanket off the couch and headed into my bedroom. It had been over two nights since I had slept in my bed and that shitty couch wasn't going to help me fall into a deep enough sleep.

Throughout the rest of that first week I tried more to keep myself pre-occupied. I still watched some of the news to see if anything changed, if there was going to be any word on a future offensive, but nothing seemed to change. I spent most of my time watching the reruns that most of the other networks had switched to or I watched DVD's and Netflix with the occasional video game thrown in. I also picked up on the Dark Tower series by King. I had stopped after the third book when I got back to school and I began to finish the final four.

All in all this time wasn't much different than the few stay in weekends I would have by myself to help recharge my batteries. I would normally plan these weekends after I had just gotten a new game and a few new movies and I would txt my friends and tell them I had went home for the weekend so that I would be left alone. I would bring a second TV in the living room so I could watch what I wanted on one and play games on the other. The only difference between those times and these are that those weekends would only last 3 nights at the most and I always filled my apartment with junk food and delivery pizza. This was indefinite and I was only eating three meals a day equaling around 1200 calories or less.

After that week was over I was almost out of fresh chicken and meat. What little bread I had left had some mold on it so I tore off what mold I could find and I finished it off in one whole helping. I was getting to the point where I was going to start in on the canned meats, rice, and ramen. The power was also still on so at the end of the week I emptied the tub, took, a shower, and filled it back up. I had the beginnings of a beard starting but I didn't bother to shave.

I figured that the power was staying on because our town was in a unique situation power wise. First off the campus ran completely off of a clean energy thermal power station where the over flow was given to the town. On top of that a few years ago a wind power company had installed 4 large wind turbines on the edge of town. Most people would think that this idea would work great since our city sits in a wind tunnel similar to that of Chicago. The problem was that after the wind picks up to a certain speed the props on the turbines hit the brakes and stop spinning in order to keep them from breaking down. Because of this fact, the company decided to not build a wind farm in the area cause it would take them almost twice the amount of time it normally would for them to start seeing a profit. They ended up selling the turbines to the city who would sell the electricity to the local power supplier. With all five natural power sources the city was technically energy independent in the electricity department. This meant power would likely stay on in the city longer than it likely had in Toledo and other towns in the area. At the time I still assumed that power would go out at some point. All five sources still needed to be maintained and it wasn't very likely that anyone was going to risk their ass to go out and oil up a few turbines for the comforts of the few remaining people in this city.

Thank god the power had stayed on though. If it had gone out I am sure I wouldn't have been able to survive. I think just being able to see faces on the TV were enough to keep my sanity intact longer. Without it I might not have been able to hold out.

I went two more weeks from that point until I reached that tipping point. The one you can't really climb back over once you reach the other side. I started to feel extremely lonely. The only sounds I could hear were the moans of ghouls surrounding other survivors who hadn't stayed as quiet as me. I started to think I was better than those people. After one week I went from thinking about how lucky I was to how stupid they were. In reality those people were smarter than most. They had made it this far because they obviously hadn't acted on some stupid whim. They held up in their own small stakes and kept safe. Their problem was more likely due to bad luck. They either hadn't been able to get food before securing their homes and had to scavenge their neighbors homes in order to survive, only to get cornered somewhere to die or lead those monsters back to their homes to only become besieged. Peeking from my window I could see someone just a block down the road who did just that. After re-securing his place 20 of those things started beating on his door. That drew in about 30 more. After two hours they had splintered the door, punched out the boards and entered his home. After three gun shots all I heard were screams. In all actuality it was just bad luck. In my mind at the time it was an idiot who hadn't been as smart as me.

The video games started to be boring. There are only so many times I can win a super bowl or play through the story mode on Call of Duty. Online wasn't an option since all gaming services had been shut down. I went fully into reading my books, but honestly I think they were making it worse. They centered on the main character named Roland who was obsessed with finding this tower. His obsession drove him to let those he loved die. It was a very dark and depressing series and the fact that it was filled with vampires and weird mutant creatures surely didn't help me at all.

I had decided to forgo taking another shower. At that point I wasn't worried about the power at all. I simply just didn't care anymore. I kept letting my beard grow out and my hair was an oily clumped mess. My crew cut and grown out and it didn't help that I was ready for a trim before this all started. I wasn't willing to turn on my trimmers. I was certainly too smart to allow noise like that.

I couldn't smell my BO but I could tell my sheets and couch was starting to reek from my filthy body. It didn't help that I was also going through about a pack of cigarettes a day. The smell of stale smoke filled my pitch black apartment. I normally only smoked about five to ten a day but with nothing to do I started smoking more and more.

In the end of the third week I only had about a case of beer left. I had bought about 6 cases the weekend before this all happened cause a few of my friends from back home were supposed to come up and see me. They had to back out do to work and sudden school deadlines. I was pissed at the time but over the past few weeks I felt grateful. Right at that moment, looking at the last case of beer I was mad. I had obviously become an alcoholic during those three weeks. I preferred to just stay mildly drunk to help me keep my mind off my family. Now with only that one case I could only keep up my constant buzz going for two more days. I still had one bottle of Turkey left yet since I had only touched the cheap grocery store vodka and rum. I wanted to save that Turkey for a special occasion. Maybe right before I put a bullet in my head. Every day I was stuck in the dark I thought about it more and more. I know I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it, but with a whole bottle of Turkey in me I might find the courage and even if I couldn't I might still get lucky and die from alcohol poisoning.

After my dinner beer that night I threw my can and paper plate in the trash. My trash can was filled with empties along the reeking remains produce and cigarette butts. It was the third full bag I had sitting in my kitchen. I suddenly became very aware of the terrible smell it was giving off even over my own. Throwing them out though meant going outside and that wasn't an option.

I sat down and watched a crappy movie on Netflix. It was the fourth time I had watched the same movie and I hadn't even liked it the first time around. I flipped my TV over to the cable and decided to watch the news. A lot of the different TV networks had started to go off the air and the ones that hadn't were only playing reruns.

That night was different though. I could instantly see it in the face of the female news anchor who was reporting. Her make up looked like it was slapped on quickly and her hair wasn't very well taken care of. I hadn't looked at the news in almost 24 hours. I was reading the closed captioning and after reading a bit I decided what was being reported was too important to just read. I unmated the TV and listened on very low volume.

"As we have been reporting the past 10 hours the government of the United States has been lying to everybody. Since the initial report of viral infection on Sept 25th that reanimated the dead the government has had a hold on media reporting to keep stories out of the general public. We had been reporting these past three weeks with armed men in our studios telling us what to say. Before quarantine in the city of Toledo had been broken and before the government was even really aware of what was happening infected individuals managed to board plans to travel in different sections of the nation. By the time quarantine broke several major cities in the United States and other parts of the world were experiencing low level infestations. We had also been reporting at that time that the government had set up a new quarantine zone. As many of you in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions know this is false. It is being reported that All of Ohio is infected, alone with Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and most of Kentucky. The cities of New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, and Seattle are also experiencing severe infestations with infected individuals pouring out of the cities and spreading throughout their respective states. Cities such as London, Honk Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, Cape Town, Jerusalem, Toronto, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and many other international cities are also experiencing outbreaks of their own. The military of the United States is currently spread too thin to do much good. All citizens should be informed that if they come in contact with anyone who has been bitten, they must remove them from the area and contain them with whatever they can. You must know that those people will die and reanimate. There is no exception for anyone, the S Virus has a 100% death and turn rate. If you encounter a turned individual and you have no chance of escape, remember that the creature can only be stopped by destroying the brain. Even in cases of decapitation the creatures head will still be living and in some cases dangerous. It has also been reported that the dead are very susceptible to the cold. Without an internal body heat the dead freeze in below freezing temperature and can even become more sluggish and slow in mid to high 30 degree weather. If you are near a snow line it is recommended that you travel farther north to colder weather. If not it is considered too dangerous and you should remain indoors. Since we are finally free to report to you the truth about what it happening we will remain on the air 24/7 reporting true up to date facts on this world wide pandemic. Cuba is reporting total national quarantine. Plains with empty full tanks have been turned around to crash into the ocean and even shot out of the air. The Cuban navy has also…"

I turned off the TV. I didn't want to hear anymore. My family was dead. They didn't obviously come out and say it and I had no reason to think it, but in my state I could not help but believe that they were all dead. In 500 miles in every direction on me there was nothing but an undead wasteland. All of a sudden that bottle of Turkey was looking a lot sweeter than it had just an hour ago.

Chapter 7

America was done and I thought my family was gone. Still in my isolated state I believed me to be the only true survivor. I still thought there might be some like me, but too few and far between. I was surtain at this point that my luck was rather quick thinking and astute planning. I still don't think I was a fool, I was more mad. My gears were starting to slip.

I sat for an hour in the pitch black. Not even a glimmer of light to shine off the steady tears running down my face. I could feel the smoke from my cigarettes sticking to my face, the smell of salty tobacco filling my nostrils between puffs. I was certain I was a true lone survivor, a LMS, but I didn't know if I wanted to be. I decided to put myself in a drunken state. I had thought alcohol had kept me sain those 3 weeks and I thought that in a more drunken state I could better decide what I wanted to do. Live or die.

I opened my front door for the first time in weeks. First I threw all the trash out over the edge of my porch, and then I came out with my bottle of Turkey and my cigarettes. I had decided that I would drink until I was well drunk and then make a decision. If I wanted to live then I would go back in and continue my anti sensory living. If I decided to die, I would finish off the bottle and eat a bullet.

I thought about my past life during the next hour while I sipped at the bottle on my fold out chair. Random memories came to me for different reasons.

I was wearing a pair of sleep pants that my mother had gotten me for Christmas the following year. It was part of a yearly tradition for each child, me, my older brother, and my two younger twin sisters, to receive a new pair every year with a new hoodie. I would always put on the new pair of comfortable pants as soon as I got them and take off whatever shirt I was wearing and put on my hoodie so I could enjoy the feel of the unwashed inside that always felt so soft.

I was wearing a T-Shirt from my senior year of football. I had been heavy back then and I played offensive tackle. One of my best friends, Rodger, had been the quarter back. He always trusted me to keep him safe. That year I had trouble with a host of injuries, specifically concussions. I lost half the season but I made it back for our last game. A real nail bitter fought out in the cold and the rain. We won by only a hand full of points.

On top of my shirt I was wearing a padded flannel shirt that used to belong to my grandfather. He died only a few months after my final year of football, just a few days after Christmas. That year even though he was hurting, he still managed to make it out hunting with all us guys. He would never give up a chance to be with us. He was the one who calmly taught me how to hunter, trap, and fish. My father took the time to teach me the same things, but he did so in a more aggressive manner, never understanding why I couldn't pick it up quicker. My grandfather always pulled me aside and told me the way my father was with me was the way he was with my father. Men in our family don't tend to learn patients until a much older age.

I lit a cigarette with a Zippo my best friend Carl had given me not 3 months ago. He had gotten it for my birthday and it had my initials engraved in it. Whenever I went home on weekends we would be almost inseparable. Carl, Rodger, my other close friend Mike, and me would spend a lot of time at our favorite place, Summit Bar. It was this hole in the wall were you would find a lot of good old boys and state line fights between Ohioans and Indianans. One of the few places that still let you smoke inside.

All these thoughts swirled in my mind. The alcohol was starting to take effect. In my mind it was all going to come down to one question. Was there really any chance that my family or friends were still alive or not. Everyone I cared about lived in an area that was much better suited to weather this threat and my dad, uncles, and brothers were much like me. They could survive and I knew it. Problem was I didn't want to know it and I had been alone so long that I believed them to all be dead. My family back home, my sisters at school in Ft. Wayne, IN, hell even my oldest cousin all the way in Idaho. They were dead and I didn't need to think about it anymore. I didn't want to be a survivor and be completely alone. I couldn't stand the idea.

I puffed on the last cigarette I thought I would ever have as I pulled out my Hi – Point. I checked the clip and I slid out one bullet. I pulled back the chamber and I placed it in place. I heard it snap in and knew it was ready to go. I flipped my cigarette over the edge and pulled up my bottle. I started taking bigger drinks with few rests in between. It never dulled down to a warm feeling and stayed at an uneasy burn. I watched the setting sun with tears running down my face. My last sunset. I began to pull the barrel up under my chin and I closed my eyes. I still remember my prayer.

"Take me you selfish son of a bitch."

At that I hear feet. At the first moment that I hear them I know they belong to someone living. I almost shrugged it off as another idiot about ready to die. I begin to pull the gun back up under my chin when out of the corner of my eye, down the alley way that took me to the carry out, I see someone running. I drop the gun down to my lap and see a person with a back pack strapped to their back hulling ass up the alleyway. They were dodging cars and garbage that had been left in the middle of the alley and coming straight my way. I had the idea of slipping back into my apartment and just letting them run by, but I was stuck in place. I had listened to so many people run by my place over the past few weeks. I had even looked out and watched a few die. Now I couldn't move. A small piece wanted me to see what happened; to clearly see what happened instead of peeking through my trash bag covered windows.

The thing was I never thought for one second that person would see me. As they ran up the alley our eyes met. Piercing eyes peeking over top a mouth cover and under dark brown hair pulled back into a bun. She was a woman. Her eyes widened and her route seemed to have more purpose. I could see why. Rounding the corner at the end of the ally was a group of at least twenty ghouls. Molding and moving as quickly as their rigor mortis legs would carry them.

"Help me! Please help me!" She screamed up at me.

I stand up at the top of my porch, bottle of Turkey dangling from one hand, pistol in the other. She made it to the end of my landing, jumping up and grabbing the ledge. She hangs for a moment and drops back to the ground. I continued to just stare. "For the love of God help me! I'll die!" She stares into my drunken eyes. I can barely manage a whisper.

"Nooo…"

"Your killing me! Your killing MEEEE!"

I looked past her down the alleyway. The mob is within 60 feet of my porch. I can still remember thinking that she wasn't a survivor, only I was. But for reasons that I still cannot understand even now, knowing I wanted her to die or at least not help her in the slightest, I set my bottle down on my porch, hostled my Hi-Point, and reached down for her. She quickly and strongly grasped my hand and I hoisted her up to the landing. By the time she ran up to the top of the porch the monsters had reached the edge. The tallest managed to get their hands up on the landing but couldn't pull themselves up. All were eager to get a hold of me, a bit of me. It was the first time I had seen a group up close. I stood there and watched their hunger. Jaws snapping at me. I spit off the edge and hit the closest one in the face. It didn't even flinch.

I walked back up to the top of the porch and picked up my bottle. I took a big swig before I put the cap back on. I reached for the door but before I did I looked down at the pistol on my hip. I had missed my chance. That was the only time I had seriously considered ending my life and I had missed my chance to an easy way out of this mess. I can only say that I am glad that I didn't go through with it.

Chapter 8

I stumbled into the apartment, almost falling into my kitchen table and I pulled my pistol. I still had the LMS thoughts in my mind and at that point all I could think about was that this bitch ruined my chance for an easy way out and had instead damned me to a slow and painful death. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but if I couldn't get out because of those freaks in front of my porch I was as good as dead.

"Are you bite?" I manage to slur. At this point I was well drunk.

"No of course not."

"How can I trust you? I don't fucking know you. I should just throw your ass back outside."

"God please. I promise you I'm not bit. I swear to God."

"Swearing to God isn't worth the money in my wallet now. I saw you running from that mob. How do I know they didn't take a nibble on you and you're hiding it from me? HUH!"

Her dark green eyes lowered to the ground. She slowly pulled the straps of her pack off of her shoulders. Afterwards she flips the shoes off of her feet alone with her socks. Tears start to stream down her face as she starts to pull her long sleeve shirt over her head, exposing a tight stomach and perky breasts held up by a pink bra with white polka dots.

I lowered my gun and began to blush and feel a pain of quilt. Even in my mostly drunk, partially mental state I was still raised to be better than this. I couldn't let her continue.

"Stop it. Put your shirt back on. I'll just take your word for it. Sit down on the couch please."

She slowly slid her shirt back down and wiped her eyes. She moved over to the couch and sat down. I walked over and sat across from her. I laid my pistol in my lap but I didn't point it at her.

"I just want to make this very clear. You screwed me. You brought a mob of those ghouls to my place. Right now they are outside moaning and drawing lord knows how many more of those things. Because of that we are going to have to be extra quiet and careful. No noise, no light. If you want to have a shower, then you go take one right now. After that no more showers. You want to break these rules? Fine. But your ass is back out on those streets once you run out of food unless you want to starve to death. What I have is mine, that isn't a discussion. If you didn't bring anything with you that is just tough luck. You better hope those things go away or your either going to die a slow death up here or an extremely painful one down there. Finally, if I catch you taking any of my food. If I find a can missing or if something feels light, I will personally kill you. Do you understand me? You got any questions?"

She slowly raised her head up to look at me. A weird look was in her eyes. It seemed to show thanks for saving her, compassion for not making her strip, fear from my attitude, and hate from my harshness. She paused for a second and said, "How drunk are you and where do I sleep?"

"Very and Couch."

After we stared at each other for a while she got up and went to the bathroom. After a few minutes I heard the water start to run. While she showered I went about counting the food that I had. I wasn't going to let her sneak something on the first night thinking she could get away with it before I counted what I had. Afterwards I took the .38 revolver and its shells and moved it into my room in a hidden spot. Last thing I wanted was to be shot in the face while I slept.

Right before she exited the shower I pulled the trash can in my room up to me and threw up until there was nothing left but bile. I was wasted and didn't want to get worse. On top of that I didn't want her to see me weak. I thought it could give her some kind of advantage over me. I walked the trash bag out to the porch and I threw it over the edge with the other trash bags. Before stepping back in I looked down at the group of undead. There were at least 40 of the monsters and they were drawing each other in.

When I eventually stepped back into the apartment she was just stepping out of the bathroom. She had put on a change of clothes and was drying her hair with one of my extra towels.

"Is it ok if I use this or are you going to slit my throat?"

I just grunted at her as I walk into my room for a change of clean clothes. While I didn't care anymore how I smelled there was still a part of me thinking, "Can't smell like this in front of a pretty girl like that."

I peeled off my clothes in the bathroom. Everything was disgusting except for my flannel which I had just put on earlier to wear outside. I ended up washing my hair three times and I scrubbed myself four times over. Layers of skin came off in the process. When I came out of the shower I combed my hair back and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair had grown to well over an inch, much longer than I was used to growing it. My beard was also near no shave November worthy as well.

When I walked out I saw her sitting on the couch watching the news on TV. She was reading the captions and I could see a look on her face that I can only assume I had myself a few hours ago.

"I take it this is the first time you have seen the news in a while?"

She lets out a short sob and says, "We lost power about two weeks ago… how could this happen?"

I just sat there and shook my head. I didn't have the answers for her. I still don't. I let her watch and read for as long as she wanted to. When the last bit of light from the sun was gone I closed the door and lit a candle.

Sitting back down across from her I asked, "So what is your name?"

"I thought you wouldn't want to know since I'm eventually going to be evicted."

"I guess that depends how long you're going to be here. So I guess the first question is how long will your food last you?"

"About two weeks. Still want to know my name?" I nod my head yes. "My name is Maggie Grey. What's yours Mr. Landlord?"

"William Perry. Will for short if you prefer. Mind if I ask how you found your way to my place Maggie?"

Over the next few hours Maggie told me how she had weathered the undead infestation the past few weeks. Unlike me she had found out about the quarantine breach in the middle of the night before she had gone to bed. Her roommate, her boyfriend, and she went out, bought some none perishable food stuff, made a late night run for melee weapons, and like me she lived in an upstairs apartment with one wooden staircase leading up. They cut the bottom section off like mine and stayed put. Their first week they stayed mostly quiet and didn't do much. They had enough food to last them at least a month and they thought they could wait it all out. Unfortunately after the first week someone had driven a car right into pole about a block down from her place and knocked the power out for four whole square blocks which explains the media blackout. After two weeks in the dark they only had enough food to last each person another two weeks and only enough water to last them a few days. They all decided to pack up what they could carry and try to make it out of the city. It was either that or die from dehydration. Maggie's boyfriend was the first to jump down from her porch, afterwards Maggie herself jumped. But when Maggie's roommate jumped she landed on a brick that was covered in weeds and broker her ankle. She screamed out and drew the attention of every zombie in the area. They tried to drag her along but the monsters were gaining on them, so they dropped her and ran for it. In their panic they drew the attention of more monsters. About four blocks from my place Maggie and her boyfriend ran into an alleyway that was blocked off by a chain link fence. They had a group that was only twenty feet behind them. Her boyfriend ended up hoisting her over the fence before he was dragged down and killed. She kept running looking for anyplace that might be safe. She noticed a porch that had the bottom cut out like she had done to hers and she headed for it thinking she would give it a try. On the way she saw me and she decided it was this or nothing.

When she was done telling her story she had tears running down her eyes. I could see why she was holding so much contempt for how I had treated her. She had lost her boyfriend because he had sacrificed his life to save hers and I was constantly reminding her that I was going to throw her back out there to most likely die in order to save my own skin. It's so sad and terrible when I think about it now, but at that time all I could think about was how stupid she was. That is why I was a survivor and she wasn't.

"You might think I'm a piece of shit, but I'm not going to die. You got some unlucky breaks but you still made stupid decisions. You're lucky that man gave his life to save yours. I guarantee you that if it were me, I would have left you there and jumped the fence myself."

"My boyfriend was ten times the man you could ever hope to be."

"And I'm alive and he isn't, so who really wins that argument? If it wasn't for this waste of space you would be dead now. Because of me your living on borrowed time. I still haven't heard a thank you yet."

"You're a piece of shit. I hope you rot in hell."

I just smirked at her, "I would say that I think you'll be waiting for me at the gates, but I can honestly say that we both more than likely there already."

I blow out the candle.


	3. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Maggie slept that night while I sat in the chair watching her. I still didn't trust her. I needed to make sure she wasn't bitten. I couldn't let her continue stripping earlier and in all reality I should have believed her based on the fact that she started stripping without being asked. She was obviously willing to go to any length at that point to survive and she showed it there. She had been willing to completely belittle herself in order to survive. At that point though I didn't think of her as a survivor. Only I was a survivor. For all I knew she was a lair willing to do anything to live one more night before turning and taking me out with her.

That night was long and hard on me. I was still completely drunk and it was hard to keep my eyes open. I focused on the scratching of hands outside on the bottom of my porch to keep myself awake. Thinking that they could somehow get up was enough of an energy boost to allow me to keep my eyes open.

While I looked at Maggie I couldn't help but notice how peaceful she was sleeping. It seemed like she hadn't had a true deep sleep in a long time. Maybe it was due to the fact that she knew for well over two weeks that she would have to go out into the unknown of a zombie controlled world. If that was the case then how could she sleep so well in my place? I had flat out told her she was going to be gone once her food was gone. Two weeks until eviction. Was it because she had already gone out once and felt better about a second trip? Or was it because she never planned on leaving?

This last thought made me even more paranoid. I stayed up the whole night watching her, gun in hand. I no longer thought about her getting sick and turning, but rather her slitting my throat in my sleep. I won't lie, I had thoughts of killing her then. In fact I wanted to kill her, but I wasn't raised to ever hurt a woman. I had cracked a few skulls in my day when I witnessed a man putting a hand on a woman. There was one instance at Summit Bar where I would have ended up in jail if I had been anywhere else. Only place in the world I could smash a man in the back of the head with a beer mug and have everyone in the bar say he slipped and hit his head while trying to cold cock me. No, I wasn't going to kill her, but I would watch her.

Eventually morning came, something that I only knew because of the clock I looked at told me so. We were back in anti sensory mode. Something I wouldn't back off on for a while. Maggie slowly started to open her eyes. The first thing she sees is me holding my gun, bags underneath my eyes.

"Why am I not surprised," she says to me with hate in her eyes. "Thinking I'm going to run off with your stuff or that I'm going to murder you in your sleep?"

I hid my suspicions about her killing me. "More like making sure you didn't get a taste for fresh meat while I slept. I couldn't risk it."

"Then why in the hell did you tell me to stop stripping yesterday when I was trying to show you I wasn't bit? I mean heck I can understand why you might not believe me, especially about something like that, but why would you stay awake a whole night just watching me when you could have not only figured out what you wanted to know in a few seconds but also had gotten to look at what might be that last naked woman you get to see in your life?"

I just looked down at the ground and walked away to the bathroom shaking my head. I could feel her eyes on my back watching me just walk away. I stood in the bathroom trying to force out a piss. My stream was a very dark yellow. I hadn't had any water to drink since before I started drinking the bottle of Turkey the day before.

I filled a milk jug full of water and I knocked back about four Advil as I sit back down in my chair.

"You didn't answer my question." Maggie told me. I hoped I could just shrug it off.

"I'm hung over as hell right now and I don't want to answer your question so just drop it."

I turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels. Before I could get past three she started up again.

"I don't give a shit. I apparently slept all night with a gun pointed at me and I want a god damn answer."

"Well tough shit honey cause this isn't how it works. This is my place and you don't make the rules. As far as I'm concerned you're out in a few weeks so do me a favor. Keep your thoughts and questions to yourself. There isn't any point for us to get more acquainted than we already are so please just leave me the hell alone."

At that I picked up my water and walked into my room slamming the door behind me. I couldn't keep my eyes open for much longer so I crawled onto my bed and shut my eyes.

I woke back up after about a five hour nap. It was hard to make myself get up. I knew that if I didn't I wouldn't be able to go to bed later. After sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed I could feel a very belated hangover starting. I put down about half of the gallon of water and some more Advil.

I walked out half expecting all my shit to be gone but to my surprise Maggie didn't take anything and run off and was instead taking a nap of her own. I peeked out the window and saw that only about ten of those dead bastards were still standing in front of my porch but the rest had moved on to other areas. My stomach started making a lot of noise since I hadn't eaten anything in close to twenty four hours.

I started slamming pots and pans around the kitchen. A lot of noise to just make some Ramen Noodles. Maggie woke up with a start. Good thing. The more I could do to make her hate me the less she would talk to me and hopefully the sooner she would leave.

"Really dick." She said me while trying to cover her ears.

"Guys got to eat. If you cook something after me make sure you clean your dishes. I'm not your maid."

I sat down and made some loud slurping noises to make my point.

"What happened to being completely quiet?"

I glared at her. I had completely forgotten about being quite in my anger. None of the noise I made in the kitchen alerted any more of the monsters outside, but she was right. As much as I wanted to make her angry I couldn't risk doing it loudly.

That is how our lives went for about the next 10 days. I would do what I could to make her angry but in the quietest fashion possible. I would take the remote and change it from her channels to something else, regardless if I wanted to watch anything or not. I would also blow smoke in her general direction when enjoying one of my Reds. Even when I would get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom I would kick the couch just to wake her. I could see her hate grow day by day and waits more she was running out of food. She knew that she didn't have a chance for me to give her any of my supply and I could see even if I did she wouldn't want to stay here with me anyway. Who would have thought that things would change for us so quickly?


	4. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The day of Oct 28th changed me. It was terrible, sick, and it showed how this world can change some people. For me though, it all worked out. I retained my sanity that day and started the transition back to being normal, or at least as normal as anyone can be in this apocalyptic hell.

The day went on as normal. I was doing what I could to torment Maggie. She was clearly almost out of food and I knew that she would be out of the apartment within the next few days. I could also see that the silence was starting to have a very negative effect on her mental state much like it had on mine. Without me talking to her and without any noise her head would constantly jerk towards any small sound from outside or in the apartment. Every creak in the floor of moan from a ghoul would almost force her on her feet in anticipation. Anticipation of what I have no idea.

That night I smoked a cigarette and drank a glass of my last bit of Turkey while I watched the news. It hadn't changed much but at this point it was one of only a handful of channels that were still on the air. Netflix had shut down and the only thing I could find on the net was some government sites reporting survival advice.

The weather to this point was still warm and we were dealing with bouts of rain and thunder storms. The thunder seemed the drive the zombies into a frenzy. The noise would drive them in several different directions. I was just waiting for it to finally freeze. I wanted to see what would really happen. If the news was right I could finally make it home and see if anyone in my family made it and if they didn't maybe I could find the courage again to end my life.

I quickly put down the rest of my whiskey and put the final fifth of my bottle down beside my chair. I snubbed out my cigarette in a full ask tray and stood up. As I walked to my room for the night Maggie stopped me.

"I'm going tomorrow if it stops raining and dries up. The day after at the latest."

She looked into my eyes. I could see some hope that maybe I would say something she wanted to hear. I saw that hope leave her eyes as I said, "Good luck to you then."

I walked into my room and shut the door behind me with a smile on my face. She would no longer be my problem. No more sleeping with one eye open, no more counting my food supply each day. I would finally be by myself again which I thought was a good thing. I wasn't thinking about the depression I suffered through during those three weeks, not about almost killing myself, not about how, even though I didn't trust her, the shear fact that she was around gave me something to actually think about shear nothingness.

I slept deeply that night. I dreamed of Christmas as a kid, playing football in school, that time me and my friends almost burned down Carl's dad's barn. All of a sudden I was back when I was in Junior High after my older brother had gotten into a bad accident and mom had a cancer scare and had to get a lot of tests done. It was some of the worst times that I can remember with my father. The financial strain that year on our family had caused him to turn to alcohol more than usual and he was constantly yelling about the smallest things. That quarter my brother and I didn't do so well in school and we made the mistake of showing him our grades late at night after he was rather drunk. He picked my brother up off his crutches and threw him across our living room. I ran to my room and locked the door behind me. I could hear my mother screaming at him, threatening to take all of us kids and finally leave him, the only time my mother made such a threat. He was ramming his shoulder into my door yelling at me to take my beating like a man. The thing was he wouldn't stop. I remember him finally giving up and hearing my mother slap him and telling to get out of the house, but in this dream he didn't stop. He kept ramming the door until he finally busted the lock and came in. He grabbed me and started choking me. Now I could hear my mother screaming.

"You're going to kill him. Mike you're going to kill him!" He wouldn't stop choking me. My vision started to go black. When all my senses started to shut down I hear my mom whisper, "They're going to kill her."

I slowly opened up my eyes and look at my clock. It was four in the morning. I lay in bed for a few seconds. I could hear Maggie rummaging around in the living room and kitchen. My first thought went to her stealing my stuff and trying to get out. Then I noticed the noise was coming from both my kitchen and the table between the kitchen and living room. I didn't register a real red flag until I heard a male voice.

"Oh god this is going to feel so good. I know you want this."

I pull my Hi-Point out of its holster that was still on the belt of my jeans and I check the chamber. There is already a round jacked in. I tip toe to my door and slowly pull it open a few inches. I see a tall wide shouldered man in dirt covered clothes. He had Maggie on the table and had her shirt ripped open and was working on her pants. She was crying and fighting back. I could see him trying to work his belt. I opened the door a bit more and I raised my Hi-Point. I slowly pulled the trigger. The report was deafening to my ears, the first truly loud noise I had heard in weeks. A large red hole appeared in the man's chest and a mist of blood blew out onto Maggie. I stepped out of my room as I saw someone from the kitchen run for the front door. By the time I reached the front door myself he was almost to the bottom of the stairs. I shot twice more. The first went into the man's shoulder and the other into the back of the man's head. He fell off the edge and hit the ground.

I stepped back into the apartment. Maggie was silently sobbing on the table and the man on the ground was gasping for breath, bubbles forming in his wound. I slowly noticed that I recognized him. I couldn't put a name to his face but he was someone that was in a few of my education classes. I flipped the lights on in the living room so he could see my face. I could see that he also recognized me before the last amount of life left his eyes. A man that had dedicated himself to teaching children had just broken into my place and tried to rape a woman on my own table. I set down my gun and grabbed his ankles, dragging him outside. I rolled him down the stairs until he fell off the edge onto his partner.

How could someone like that turn into such a monster. More importantly how was I being any different? I had spent the past 10 days torturing this girl who had only been truthful to me the whole time she has been here. This world was changing everyone and no matter how much I wanted to survive I had to start making sure that I did what I could to keep my morals intact.

I stepped back into the apartment and saw that Maggie had moved to the couch. She was sobbing, trying to cover her exposed chest with what remained of her shirt. She had managed to get her pants pulled back up. I walked to the sink and wetted a rag. I sat down next to her and pushed the hair away from her face. She flinched at my touch but soon calmed down. I started cleaning the man's blood from her face and arms. I reached for the 5th of Turkey and I twisted off the cap. I took a quick swig and handed her the bottle. She took it from my hand and took some hefty swigs. I got up and went to the bathroom and started the shower for her.

She quietly got up and walked into the bathroom. I brought her a clean t shirt of mine and an old pair of football shorts. While she showered I washed her clothes in the sink, something I had forbid because of the noise. I washed some of my things while I was at it.

While Maggie stepped out of the bathroom I could see that the sound of the water running had hidden her crying. She was releasing a steady amount of sobs and tears. I put the bottle back in her hand and watched her take several more swigs, finally finishing off the Turkey. I walked her into my room and I changed the sheets on the bed for the first time since the dead started to rise.

"You go ahead and sleep in here tonight. I'm gonna sleep out in the living room in case anyone else was with them and they come looking."

She gave me a slight questioning look, like she didn't know if she could really trust me.

"Really please just sleep in here as long as you want tonight. You need to get some rest."

She hesitantly lay down and I pulled the sheets up over her. "You'll be safe. I promise."

I picked my holster up off the ground before walking out of my bedroom and I noticed that I was dragging my jeans alone with them. At that point I realized that I had killed two men while only in my underpants.


End file.
